The Big Comfy Bookshop is part of a national initiative launched by Music Venue Trust to prevent the closure of hundreds of independent music venues.
Hi I'm Michael, the owner of The Big Comfy Bookshop. The Bookshop has been my idea since 2012 and was realised in 2014. Since then many wonderful people have worked here over the past 6 years, but now I'm back down to just me.
The Big Comfy Bookshop has been a centre-piece in the middle of Fargo Village, Coventry since the very start of the village in September 2014. Crowdfunder helped me set it up, Crowdfunder helped me expand, and I'm hoping Crowdfunder can help me get through this difficult time of Covid-19. It's a hub of creativity filled with thousands of books, coffee and cake, music, poetry, art and more. Coventry will be the City of Culture 2021 and the shop want's to be here for it.
Since March, the shop (and the world) has ground to a halt. The government support could only cover a certain period of time for me, and as we creep slowly out of Covid, it's clear that moving forward, the shop cannot run as it had. Every event since March was cancelled, and these events make up a huge percentage of the shops income. Now events can start to be reintroduced, our capacity will be smaller, our timings stricter and options shorter. This all means our once packed (and I mean packed) poetry nights, with people sitting on tables and bookcases, will be no more for some time, and it looks like we'll be going from 70 people down to less than 20. The same can be said for our music.
The bookshop has won awards for it's music night Comfy & Acoustic and I book musicians 12 months in advance due to its popularity. The format of future shows will probably have to change too. Looking to the future I'm hopeful we can pull through, but really do need your help. The £10K I've asked for will cover the past 5 months rent and bills.
If we hit our target, and we can ensure the survival of our venue, everything above the amount we need will be donated to the Music Venue Trust GMV Crisis Fund to protect other venues just like ours, right across the country.